Mystery at Witchend (by Malcolm Saville)

I have been reading Malcolm Saville’s ‘Lone Pine’ series for around fifty years, re-reading them all, even as an adult, every ten years or so. Some of my Armada paperbacks were starting to fall to pieces, and I had the opportunity of buying some of the Girls Gone By Publisher full reprints second-hand, inexpensively.

I’ve started on my latest re-read of the series, and have just finished the GGBP edition of “Mystery at Witchend’. I have been astounded at how much more content there is than in the abridged Armada version, which I last read in 2008.

The book, set in the 1940s in Shropshire, first introduces David Morton and his younger twin siblings. David is around fourteen, and the twins, Dicke and Mary, are nine. Their father is away in the war, and they have come with their mother to a house called Witchend for their summer holidays. They don’t really expect much to happen, but are looking forward to exploring the area and meeting some of the locals.

Tom Ingles is about David’s age, and works at a farm with his aunt and uncle not far away from Witchend. He doesn’t much like the countryside; he’s lived in London all his life, and isn’t too keen on the idea of being a farmer. But he learns fast and works hard, and is pleased when he discovers someone of his own age nearby.

Then there’s Peter - Petronella, to give her full name - who lives with her widowed father in a place called Hatchholt. He is the keeper of a reservoir, and quite a pernickety man, who seems rather elderly to be the father of a teenager. He adores his daughter and is kind and hospitable, so long as people are prepared to be clean and tidy.

The five young people start a club, the ‘Lone Pine’ club, with the aim of exploring, watching birds and tracking strangers. The last of those is because there have been a surprising number of people who are new to the area. There’s the friendly John Smith, an air force officer whose parachute has become tangled, and Mr Evans, who has hurt his foot. They all seem to be connected with another house, called Appledore, which is owned by Mrs Thurston and her manservant Jacob. None of the children much like Jacob but Mrs Thurston seems to be likeable, if a tad inquisitive, although the Morton’s dog Mackie dislikes her intensely.

It’s quite an exciting adventure, and having read it so many times I mostly remembered the storyline. I also remembered the Lone Piners, who all reappear regularly in the later books in the series. But in this unabridged edition, there is a great deal more conversation, sometimes entire pages which were cut out of the Armada version. It was well abridged; nothing is lost as far as the story goes. But there’s a lot more characterisation, so we get to know the adults as well as the children, and see into Dickie and Mary’s imagination far more than in the version I had previously read.

I didn’t quite trust my memory at first. So I found my Armada edition of ‘Mystery at Witchend’ in order to compare the two. But I was right. There are so many extra asides and sections that it was, in places, almost like reading a new book. The descriptions come alive much more, and the people are so believable that I could hardly put the book down.

I’m glad Armada made the abridged books in the 1970s; they were affordable for young teenagers, as I was then, and readily available. I know there are many people other my age who recall them fondly, and still re-read them regularly. But I’m even more pleased that GGBP have reprinted them in the full editions, and am looking forward greatly to reading the rest of the series over the next year or two.

Highly recommended for older children or teenagers who like a good adventure story in a historical setting, and also for people like me who love re-reading children’s fiction. As CS Lewis once said, “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty.”  I just wish the new editions were more widely available; unfortunately they tend to go out of print quickly, and second-hand editions can be quite highly priced.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews